Terrence Howard preps ‘Panthers’

Actor, Radical Media team on TV drama

Thesp Terrence Howard has partnered with Radical Media to develop a TV drama based on the life of undercover LAPD detective Ronald Farwell.

“Pigs and Panthers” will be set in 1960s and early 1970s Los Angeles, when Farwell infiltrated the Black Panthers. Project will draw from the story of Farwell and his wife, an L.A. Sheriff’s deputy, as he soon finds himself on the wrong side of the Black Panther Party, the FBI and the LAPD itself.

Howard’s production company, A Huge Quality Film, is developing the project and will produce with Radical Media. Ron Hutchinson (“The Tuskegee Airmen”) is penning the pilot.

Radical Media, the shingle also behind Sundance’s “Iconoclasts,” AMC’s “Storymakers,” the doc “The Fog of War” and the pilot to “Mad Men,” is pitching the project around town.

“That time in our lives had a tremendous impact on our society, which can be felt even today,” Howard said. “We’ve put the right creative team in place to tell this fascinating story.”

Radical Media’s Robert Friedman and Justin Wilkes will exec produce “Pigs and Panthers,” while Howard and Victoria Fredrick, who co-owns and runs A Huge Quality Film, will also exec produce.

Howard earned an Academy Award nomination for “Hustle and Flow.” His recent credits include “Fighting,” and he’ll next be heard in the animated feature “The Princess and the Frog.” Hutchinson’s other credits include “The Josephine Baker Story” and the miniseries version of “Traffic.”